Yu Xiaxing’s phone suddenly lit up with a notification about an incoming payment.
Amount: 10,000.
Payment note: [Star, approve me.]
A few seconds later, another transfer came in.
Amount: 10,000.
Payment note: [You said you’d forgiven me.]
Then came a third.
[The traffic police are still standing beside me. I’m in a hurry.]
A fourth.
[Star, your big brother really needs you.]
A fifth…
Yu Xiaxing stared at the screen, the curve of her lips growing higher and higher.
By the time the total amount had far exceeded her anger, she could no longer keep herself from smiling.
Who in this world couldn’t be coaxed into forgiveness? It was just a matter of not offering enough money.
She hurriedly approved the request, then gave him a like.
Out of the corner of his eye, Yu Zheng noticed the smile Yu Xiaxing could no longer hide and immediately knew she had been won over.
Yu Zhining had probably wanted to add his little sister for a long time. He was simply too awkward to make the first move.
This time, he had finally found a legitimate excuse.
—
Before long, Yu Xiaxing and Yu Zheng arrived home.
The moment they stepped through the door, a rapid patter of paws rang out. A small white cloud shot straight toward her.
Diandian hadn’t seen his mommy or uncle for two whole days, and the dog was so excited he had practically gone wild!
Clenching his carrot toy between his teeth, he spun around them while whining happily.
“Diandian!”
Yu Xiaxing had been so tired that her eyelids were practically stuck together, but the moment she saw him, she perked up again and scooped him into her arms.
Diandian immediately buried his head in the crook of her neck, nudging her face with his damp little nose.
He smelled sweet and clean, and the servants had brushed his fur until it was soft and fluffy. He was like a marshmallow that wouldn’t stop wriggling.
“Come on, let Uncle hold you too.” Yu Zheng took him from her. Knowing how exhausted his sister was, he glanced upstairs. “You should go to bed. Once Diandian calms down, I’ll bring him to your room.”
“Okay.” She rubbed Diandian’s head, then went to take a shower.
It was only after the hot water poured over her that she finally began to recover from the chaos of running nonstop.
After her shower, she climbed into bed.
Yu Zheng had brought Diandian in as well. The dog expertly hopped onto the small cushion beside the bed and curled up into a fluffy white ball.
Yu Xiaxing lay down and took one last look at her phone.
She suddenly noticed that the official video account of Puwen Online had already posted a report about yesterday’s scam.
“…A large-scale fraud ring has been apprehended…”
There was a prominent shot of Qin Mei being taken away. Her eyes had been covered with thick black lines, but she was still recognizable at a glance.
Right afterward, another piece of local news was pushed to her phone.
“…The daughter of a core member accepted an interview, claiming that she, too, was a victim.”
Yu Xiaxing tapped on it.
In the video, Huo Mian sat in front of the camera, her face still bruised in several places.
“I didn’t participate in the fraud. I’m a victim too,” she sobbed.
“Ever since I was little, I’ve lived under my mother’s control. She had a deeply twisted way of caring for me.”
She went on to describe how her mother had abused her when she was young in order to force her obedience…
All of it had already been confirmed as false. The mother and daughter had fabricated the story together to gain sympathy.
Huo Mian continued, “I admit that there are many problems with my personality, and that I’ve hurt other people.”
“But I truly didn’t want to become this way from the beginning…”
“And as for my mother—she did something wrong, so she should be punished. I won’t defend her.”
“But she’s still my mother. I’ll wait for her to come out.”
“After she changes, I’ll still stay by her side.”
“Because I know that she’s had a very difficult life too.”
The more Yu Xiaxing listened, the more familiar those words sounded!
In her previous life, Huo Mian had said something very similar.
The only difference was that back then, the person she had promised to protect and wait for was Yu Zhining.
At the time, she had said, “Once he gets better, I’ll still be willing to stay by his side.”
“Because I know that his life has been very difficult.”
When that interview came out, countless male viewers had been moved to tears.
Yu Xiaxing vaguely remembered the comments she had read back then. They had been something like:
[Are there really still women this devoted in modern society?]
[Brothers, I’m going to Pucheng. I want to run into her by chance. A woman like that deserves to be loved properly.]
[If I were the Yu family’s young master, I could die happy after living a life like that.]
[…]
Back then, Huo Mian had been surrounded by the glowing labels of “devotion,” “unwavering loyalty,” and “redemption.”
She had quickly become famous and amassed a huge following of male fans.
In this life, she had simply exchanged one halo for another.
From devoted and romantic to filial.
Would she end up gathering another army of fans?
Frowning, Yu Xiaxing opened the comments.
[Don’t cry! I haven’t even cried yet—and I’m the one you bullied in school! Because my family was poor, you led your little clique in claiming that I smelled bad. You forced me to stay away from the rest of the class, and I was too insecure to fight back.
Years later, I thought what happened when we were children was over and that I could live my own life. I never imagined you would still be inciting your little group to spread rumors about me behind my back!
This time, I’m going to sue you and see it through to the end!]
The comment had already received more than fifty thousand likes.
Yu Xiaxing scrolled down.
The second comment defended Huo Mian:
[Don’t punish the children for the parents’ crimes. Her mother committed the fraud—what does that have to do with her? She was controlled from childhood too. She’s pitiful.]
That comment had only received a few hundred likes.
But several replies beneath it had tens of thousands of likes:
[That principle only applies when the children don’t benefit from the parents’ crimes. Those elderly people had their life savings stolen, and now they’re facing painful, miserable old age. When she was happily spending that money, why didn’t she say it had nothing to do with her?]
Yu Xiaxing continued scrolling.
The comments were almost completely different from those in her previous life.
[The victims’ families haven’t even come forward to cry, but the criminal’s family is already crying first. What, are you trying to become an influencer and monetize the traffic?]
[Don’t use your parents’ wrongdoing as a get-out-of-jail-free card! My father beat me so badly when I was little that he made me deaf in one ear, but I didn’t bully my classmates at school!]
[The designer clothes she’s wearing may have been bought with an old person’s entire life!]
So many things were different in this life…
In her previous life, it seemed the scammers had never been caught. Not long after the elderly victims lost their money, Yunqi Senior Care Center had gone out of business. No one had paid any further attention to what became of those old people.
But it was easy to imagine. With such huge sums of money gone, even if their children took responsibility and supported them out of duty and obligation, their lives would surely have been a complete mess.
The matter of Huo Mian and the others spreading rumors about their classmates had never been exposed either. Those classmates had no idea that Huo Mian and the others had remained unchanged all these years, so they had never found the motivation to seek justice for their younger selves.
But in this life, everything had come to light.
That was why things had veered toward two completely opposite extremes.
Yu Xiaxing stopped reading and sent Lu Yanzhao a message.
Yu Xiaxing: “I’m going to sleep. Don’t contact me during the day. Without my approval, do not renew the contract behind my back! All you need to do tonight is bring the students back safely!”
Lu Yanzhao: “Understood.”
Yu Xiaxing tossed her phone beside her pillow with complete peace of mind.
Hopefully, once she woke up, Chen Jiaxin would have helped Mrs. Xu drive her in-laws away. Mrs. Xu would be so grateful that she would renew her contract immediately—even if she didn’t move in, she would still renew it!
And nothing would happen on her end. She would steadily fail…
